1 dead, several injured in Alberta tent collapse

One person was killed and others were hurt when an event tent collapsed on hundreds of people north Edmonton on Wednesday.

Severe weather caused the tent to collapse around 5:30 p.m. at Tu Viện Tây Thiên, also known as the Westlock Meditation Center, run by the Edmonton Buddhist Research Institute, south of Westlock, RCMP say.

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Mounties did not know the total number of people injured, only that several were taken to local hospitals by EMS.

Yellow tape surrounds a collapsed tent at Tu Viện Tây Thiên, also known as the Westlock Meditation Center, north of Busby and south of Westlock, on Aug. 1, 2024. One person was killed and several others were injured when the tent collapsed the previous afternoon. (Evan Klippenstein / CTV News Edmonton)

The person who died was not from Canada but one of 400 visitors from around the world who were attending a retreat starting Thursday, a centre spokesperson told CTV News Edmonton.

Westlock was hit by a "straight-line wind event," high-speed winds produced during a severe thunderstorm, Alysa Pederson with Environment and Climate Change Canada told CTV News Edmonton.

"The peak life of that storm was essentially 5 p.m. to about 6:30 p.m. as it moved through north of Edmonton," Pederson said. "The wind damage is likely somewhere in that 80 to 90 or 80 to 100 km/h as what we would expect of that storm."

The retreat 

Attendees live and pray as Buddhist monks and nuns, practicing monasticism, for 10 days during the retreat.

The spokesperson said the retreat would continue with a modified schedule and those who were injured would be cared for at the centre once they are released from hospital.

Yellow tape surrounds a collapsed tent at Tu Viện Tây Thiên, also known as the Westlock Meditation Center, north of Busby and south of Westlock, on Aug. 1, 2024. One person was killed and several others were injured when the tent collapsed the previous afternoon. (Evan Klippenstein / CTV News Edmonton)

Westlock County's reeve, Christine Wiese, called the incident tragic and offered condolences to the family of the person killed and all others affected.

"To the residents of Westlock County, and especially to the owner and staff of the Westlock Meditation Center, we share in your grief and sorrow. This incident has deeply impacted our community and we stand together in mourning and support."

Both RCMP and Occupational Health and Safety are investigating the tent's collapse.

Thursday morning, about 1,000 residents in the surrounding rural area did not have power after it went out Wednesday afternoon or evening. In the Legal area, crews were making "emergency repairs," Fortis Alberta said on its website. Heavy winds were listed as the reason for at least one outage in the Gibbons area to the east. Power was expected to come back online between 1 and 3 p.m., Fortis estimated.

With files from CTV News Edmonton's Nicole Lampa and Evan Klippenstein